Buffalo Slow-Cooker Chicken

Okay, I know I keep doing crock pot recipes. And then I talk about delicious they are and people message me on wanting the recipes. But I never can remember to message them back! So, I am going to try to write out some of my favorite recipes on here this week.

Coming up: Crock pot lasagna, Chicken and Dumplings, and Italian Chicken Stew.

TODAY you are in for a special treat though. Because this is some of the best buffalo chicken I have had in a long time. To give credit where due, I found the recipe originally on Pinterest. But I tweaked it a bit and so would like to share my version with you. Tweaking was minimum, but feel free to change it up to YOUR tastes.

Buffalo Slow-Cooker Chicken

This chicken was VERY juicy and oozy and oh-so-deliciously messy. If you don't want it this juicy, use less hot sauce and butter. Yes, that is corn on the cob and deviled eggs served alongside. I thought they went really well together. Would also go well with some mustard greens or mashed potatoes or maybe even some Texas fries. It has a spicy, buffalo taste but it's not a heartburn-inducing, fire-breathing type spicy. If you want it spicier you might experiment with different sauces or maybe try adding a couple of sliced jalapenos when you cook it. That would definitely up the intensity!

Ingredients:

*3 lb frozen chicken breast
*1 jar of buffalo sauce
*1 packet ranch mix
*butter (or margarine)
*salt and pepper

For mine, I used Texas Pete Buffalo Sauce and Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix. Both are found in the salad dressing aisle of my local grocery store. Which also sells frozen chicken breast in a 3 lb bag! How convenient. My favorite part of this recipe? You put the chicken in frozen. No nasty thawing and cutting up cold, icky chicken. I HATE that. Yuck. And I am so paranoid about salmonella in uncooked chicken so I have to clean furiously before, during and after dealing with raw chicken. So it's a relief to just dump the chicken in the pot without having to touch it.

I did remember to put my frozen chicken in the fridge the night before. So it was a little defrosted. But the recipe assured me it didn't matter.

So, take your chicken, your buffalo sauce and your ranch mix and put all three into the crock pot. That's right. The whole bottle of buffalo sauce and the seemingly random ranch mix. Trust me, you want the ranch. It adds a lil spunk to the flavor. You'll love it!

Cover and cook on low for 4-6 hours. My crock pot is overzealous with the heat and my chicken only needed 5 hours. You can cook it longer without fear of burning or overcooking so if you're putting it in and heading off to an 8 hour work day, don't stress it. If you work 12 hour shifts though, somebody is going to need to come tend your chicken. 12 hours would leave your chicken a blackened mess I'm sure!

So, after that time, take the chicken breasts out (leave the sauce!) and shred them. Just use two forks and pull the breasts apart. I thought this was going to be a pain but once I got the hang of it, shredding the chicken wasn't bad. Took me about 10 minutes but I am pretty handicapped when it comes to cutting, slicing or shredding. So, I figure it would take the average person about 5 minutes.

After the chicken is thoroughly shredded, return it to the pot and add margarine/butter. I used 4 Tbsp of butter. Not margarine. The recipe calls for 2 Tbsp margarine but I am a fan of the butter. It made the end result chicken much juicier (review the above picture!). The next time I cook this I think I will use just 2 Tbsp to see how it turns out. But I will continue to use butter instead of margarine. It is just so much tastier! So, add that in. Also add in salt and pepper. I thoroughly salted and peppered. Then cover it back up and let it cook another hour or two. You want the chicken to absorb as much of the sauce as it can so the longer the better really. Mine simmered about 2 hours on low.

My house smelled delicious all day. And after taking a sample of the chicken when I shredded it, it was hard to resist dipping back into the pot the rest of the evening and continuing to sample it. It was so good!

This is definitely the easiest recipe I have done in the crock pot. And I will definitely be doing it again! I hope you all enjoy! Let me know how it goes! And if you make any alterations then make a comment and tell me how it turns out! I would love to try your version too!